Army Updates Espionage Rulebook Following Leaks to WikiLeaks

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Army Updates Espionage Rulebook Following Leaks to WikiLeaks

The Army has updated a 17-year-old rulebook on espionage following internal leaks of classified information to the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks.

The update, released Monday, now requires troops to alert authorities if they suspect someone is leaking classified information to the media or any other unauthorized person, according to the Associated Press, identifying media leaks specifically for the first time. It also requires the Army to create a central system to collect threat reports and for soldiers to report incidents of someone removing classified information from their proper work area.

The previous version of the guidelines simply required troops to report cases of treason or attempted intrusions into automated systems, the AP notes. The Army insists the update is not related to the WikiLeaks leaks but is simply part of a comprehensive review.

In May, a former Army intelligence analyst named Bradley Manning was arrested for allegedly leaking a classified Army video showing a gunship attack in Iraq, which WikiLeaks published in April.

In online chats with a former hacker, Manning claimed to have leaked the video as well as a trove of other classified data to WikiLeaks, including a separate video showing the notorious May 2009 air strike near Garani village in Afghanistan – which WikiLeaks has acknowledged possessing but has not yet published – and a database covering 500,000 events in the Iraq War between 2004 and 2009. Manning said the database included reports, dates, and latitude and longitude of events, as well as casualty figures. According to WikiLeaks insiders, the site is preparing to publish a cache of Iraq War documents on October 18. It appears to be similar to a database of Army reports from the Afghan war that WikiLeaks published in July.

Manning also took credit for leaking a cache of database of 260,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. Although the site published at least one cable earlier this year that Manning appeared to take credit for in the chats, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, in a Twitter message, has denied possessing a cache of 260,000 State Department cables.

He's also charged with allegedly abusing access to the government's Secret-level SIPR network to obtain more than 150,000 U.S. State Department cables, as well as an unspecified classified PowerPoint presentation.